In June 1965, 28-year-old Jim Henson started a written log of his activities in what became known as “The Red Book.” He noted down what had happened up until that point (deemed “Ancient History”) and then recorded anything that he felt was worth recording as single line journal entries until the end of 1988.

Selected curated entries courtesy of The Jim Henson Company Archives.

5/10-14/1972 – ‘Mix Bremen album in Toronto’

Before the introduction of home video, the only way to provide play-on-demand versions of entertainment was via record albums. With hi-fi stereos and small children’s record players becoming part of standard home furnishing, the market for albums of all types boomed, and the offerings for children in the 1960s and ‘70s were particularly rich. Having already participated in a couple of Sesame Street record projects, Jim’s first venture into the storytelling album area was with his television specials The Frog Prince and The Muppet Musicians of Bremen. For both shows, a script was adapted by Jim and Jerry Juhl for the record album format, and the audio was specially recorded. Both were released on Columbia Records. To make the experience of listening to the album immersive, scene by scene images were reproduced inside the fold-out album cover. That way, children listening to the story could follow along with the images as the action unfolded, much like they might on an iPad today. Clearly, the two records were a success as both were rereleased within a few years.